


Allopreen

by meanderingsoul



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Female Friendship, Gen, Gentleness, Grooming, Hair Braiding, Hurt/Comfort, Past Violence, Season/Series 06, Serious Injuries, Sleepiness, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-05 19:50:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20278855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meanderingsoul/pseuds/meanderingsoul
Summary: The first time May remembered waking up after bleeding out, it was to the girls trying to clean her up.





	Allopreen

It felt like she'd just blinked.

The first time May remembered waking up after bleeding out, it was to the girls trying to clean her up.  
  
Jemma's ice-cold fingers on her face had probably done it, rubbing something wet against her jaw. Warmer, slightly bigger hands were around her arm, bracing the wrist to keep her hand still. Daisy.  
  
May couldn't quite remember how she'd gotten here and her skin was kind of numb all over, but she must be stable if they were worried about some dirt. There didn't seem to be any reason to worry she couldn't get her eyes open yet.  
  
"Should I get some of her things, something to put on her legs? She usually brings some of her worn-out leggings to sleep in."  
  
"We can't possibly put her leggings on her. There's...actually no. I am not getting into all the tubes and things involved in a procedure like..."  
  
"Just stop, I _so_ didn't ask! I just mean, she hates this part of everything and she's still cold."  
  
"Even with her own blood given back and customized medications it'll take her body time to catch up. We'll get her another blanket."  
  
The fussing continued. May finally managed to tug against Daisy's grasp on her arm, mutter something that might have been _hush_.  
  
One of them gasped. Something hit the floor with a splat.

Jemma immediately pointed a stupid light in her face. "May? Are you awake? I thought you might stay under a little longer? It's only been a few hours since the surgery, but it went well. We got to you in time." Chilly fingertips tugged at her eyelids and resettled a wire over her shoulder.

Daisy clutched silently at her hand.

When May tried to make a louder sound in response she coughed. Then she thought about screaming for a moment, but ended up just clenching her jaw shut tight.  
  
She remembered what had happened now.  
  
When she got her eyes open finally Daisy's were red from crying, the skin around them raw.  
  
"May?" she asked, but the rest of the questions were behind it. Are you here with us. Do you remember.  
  
She finally managed to move her neck enough for a tiny nod.  
  
Simmons started sniffling, but May couldn't look to her. Daisy got her arm behind her, propped her head up enough to tip some tiny bits of ice into her mouth, cool on her throat.  
  
May leaned heavy on Daisy, didn't try to move. It was comfortable. Warm. It hadn't been a bad way to die.  
  
She was propped up strangly, something cushioning her back on one side. Daisy shuffled to sit behind her, head on her thigh again. They were trying to keep pressure off the exit wound.

She hadn't been able to feel the details when it happened, but she'd felt every bit of it dragging the sword back out in that other place, both numb and hyperaware.  
  
Daisy's fingers brushed against her cheek. "We were just about done. You were basically covered in dirt May."  
  
This was the right place to tease back at Daisy's attempt at a smile, but she was too tired to roll her eyes. Daisy scrubbed carefully at the dried blood on her face after another moment.  
  
It was weird to just lay there, but she really couldn't do anything else. Daisy wiped the rest of the blood off her face, smoothed her hair back like she had before. Her legs were far away. Every time she blinked it was slower.  
  
It tugged at something when Jemma picked up her arm to wipe the blood away, a horrible enough feeling May rasped, "Leave it," when she reached for the other one. At least words came out of her mouth.  
  
"We should let you sleep," Jemma said softly. Her voice was thick and her cheeks were wet. Her hand squeezed May's so carefully.  
  
She tried to respond, but it was so hard to stay awake with painkillers like these. Daisy might have kissed her forehead.

May fell back asleep like someone had flipped a switch, just another blink and the med bay was empty.

That hadn't been a bad way to wake up. Before. Loved voices and kind hands. She really hadn't expected to wake up this time. 

She'd told them to leave it and they had. But the side effect of that was now May was alert enough to realize she really wasn't wearing much at all, fabric wrapped around her hips and one of those useless shirts that was open down one side. They must have had to cut her clothes off. She'd been wet to her knees with blood.  
  
And there was still dirt in her hair. Grit around her knees. Basically nothing she could do about it. She could roll towards either side without too much trouble, but she couldn't sit up. Standing was off the table.  
  
Not that bad for dying again. Not really. She didn't remember much after hitting the ground. Daisy's face. Arms around her.  
  
They had to have just been Daisy's. But towards the end...it had felt different. Bigger hands on hers. Sturdier arms under her shoulders. Both sets so familiar.  
  
May dozed off again trying to remember them.

This time the door woke her, feeling like she'd only just closed her eyes. This was already getting annoying, hospital cots and heavy painkillers.  
  
Elena looked a bit grey, but was smiling gently, kissed her cheek. May leaned into it more than she usually would.  
  
"Hey there belleza."  
  
May snorted. It hurt, but she did it anyway.  
  
Elena just kissed her other cheek with an obnoxious _mwah_ sound before finally sitting down, a comfortable quiet.  
  
"Thank God you pulled through Melinda. When we heard you were down...it was bad."  
  
May would rather not think about it. Any of it. Those beings. Daisy's face. Something in _his_ face had warped right when the pain finally hit her. It was a nightmare.  
  
Distraction came when her head itched. She twitched, tried not to squirm. May could get her hands to her face with her elbows braced on the bed, but not higher, couldn't tense those muscles yet. She finally rubbed her skull hard on the pillow.  
  
"Don't suppose you're allowed to shower yet, huh?" Elena said wryly. They both knew how this went now, the healing skin too weak for that much water.  
  
"The girls tried." May wouldn't usually say it like that. Like they were kids or like they were hers. But they'd both been kids when she'd met them.  
  
"You ok to lay down flat?"  
  
"For a bit, probably."  
  
Just staying awake while Elena helped her slide to the edge of the bed about made her sweat, cold metal arm under her knees and an ache in her back that made her bite her tongue. But she'd live with it if she wanted to be cleaner.  
  
Elena sat behind her with a bowl of water in her lap and set to work on her stiffened, tangled hair.  
  
She'd let people do this for her before. Her parents when she was a kid. Her husband. Phil so many times because he'd known her limits so well. Nat. But the metal fingertips in her hair weren't strange.  
  
May just usually hadn't been quite this hurt. Even that time she crashed a motorbike under fire. Even that time she got stabbed in the back.  
  
It wasn't long before her hair at least was cool and damp and clean.  
  
"Good thing you let me practice, hm?" Yoyo teased.  
  
There was the amount of dexterity needed to throw a punch or hold a gun and the amount needed to braid your own hair without being able to see it or feel it. When May had come back from being... away, Yoyo and Mack had fallen apart and Elena was down to using plastic clips, snarling when they slipped.  
  
The first time she'd braided Yoyo's clean hair back tightly had been on the pretext of teaching her how to turn so it would snap back into someone's face in a fight. Yoyo's braid done in return had fallen out three times, loose and clumsy. May made her redo it every time.  
  
May's hair got tangled and bent in odd patterns. Elena got better.  
  
"I'm not sure what you saw, but when you made it back to this world, I had a shrike down my throat. When you killed Izel it died. You saved me."  
  
_Oh God_. But before May could react beyond her heart lurching in her chest there was a rush of air and Yoyo had found something in a drawer to tie the braid off with.  
  
It was smooth, just tight enough. It'd keep for a few days.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
Elena huffed. "Think that's my line."  
  
Shuffling back into some semblance of where she'd been before wasn't any more dignified and hurt a lot more. May was drowsy again. Already. She still asked, "Where are we?"  
  
May knew something was wrong. The girls had been too upset to ask and she'd been too tired to do it. But they weren't at the lighthouse and they weren't in flight. Shield was legitimate again; she could be in a real hospital right now if base had been too far.  
  
Elena looked tired. "The zephyr's parked. We're all regrouping for now."  
  
"Yoyo..."  
  
"Go back to sleep." Hard hands gently cradled one of hers.  
  
It was nice, so nice to be touched kindly, to be able to appreciate it when she couldn'tfor so many years. But they were all treating her like something brittle. If she was any less tired it might piss her off.  
  
Despite everything May closed her eyes and blinked out again.

**Author's Note:**

> Despite Simmons being able to plan ahead for the injury, May's probably going to need some help for a while and her team is happy to help out. <3 
> 
> This stands alone or fits in after Horizons depending on reader preference.


End file.
